Guardian First Book Award 2010

First Book Award winner 2009

I went to the Waterstone’s branch in Covent Garden last week to hear about The Guardian First Book Award. It is the only major literary award that includes the ordinary reader in the judging process.

The way it works is that there are 5 branches of Waterstone’s from around the UK taking part  - Bath, Edinburgh, Manchester, Oxford and only the Covent Garden shop as the London representative.  You have to complete an application form. It’s just one A4 sheet.  From that information - personal details, what you enjoy reading, what you are currently reading and what you think of it, the Waterstone’s staff will select seven people to become the branch’s Guardian First Book Award reading group. They will be looking for as diverse a reader group as possible to become members.

Once the group is selected towards the end of August, not long after that The Guardian will announce the 10 books on the award longlist. Essentially the group will read all the books over eight weeks. The books of course will be from any genre and of a variety of lengths. Each week the reading group will come together at their Waterstone’s branch to discuss that week’s book and then the results of the discussion will be put to The Guardian. The results from each of the reading groups will be taken into account along with the views of the celebrity judges. This year they are Ekow Eshun, artistic director, ICA; Adam Foulds poet and novelist; Richard Holmes, biographer; and the actor and author Diana Quick.

Unfortunately, I am away twice during the eight reading weeks and so decided not to proceed with the application. If the truth is to be known, I really wanted to know what the books are going to be before committing myself to such reading pressure. Also at the Covent Garden branch there were well over 50 – maybe even 60 people gathered to hear about the awards, so it’s going to be extremely tough competition to get into that reading group. 

I wonder why there are only branches in major university towns/cities taking part? Is that where Guardian readers are? Or where Waterstone’s has big enough branches to offer up staff to run the reading groups?  I was pleased that I was not the only visible ethnic minority at Covent Garden that night, but I appeared to be the only one from a visible African-Caribbean background. 

The 2009 winner of The Guardian First Book Award was Petina Gappah, for her book of short stories An Elegy for Easterly. I thought it was most definitely a wonderful choice, so I shall follow the 2010 competition with great interest.  The winner will be announced in December.

If you would like to take part, contact me and I will send you my application form. Applications have to be in by Monday 16 August.